Jingming

Chapter 289 Why Does Your Majesty Want to Cultivate Mysteries?

In Zhu Houcong's heart, Daming's future is full of thoughts, and it is difficult and difficult.

After struggling for several days, he also let go.The progress of technology is based on the unit of ten years and one hundred years. He knows nothing about many professional technologies, and his focus is on the long-term perspective.

Now the first step is to do a good job of summarizing and promoting the existing experience, which is enough to benefit Daming.

The rest should be handed over to education and time.

The first step is to summarize the experience of extension, which is naturally related to agriculture.

In the Hall of Mental Cultivation, old farmers will be welcomed in the next few days, and a reporter from Ming Pao will be present.

This term was naturally proposed by Zhu Houcong, and the reporter who often follows Zhu Houcong now is Zhao Tingsong, a Jinshi in the second year of Jiajing.

He found it quite strange: on the one hand, there was the ceremony of paying homage to the prime minister on the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, and on the other hand, there were the priests from the Agricultural College of Huangming University who were called to the Hall of Mental Cultivation to introduce their experience, and the old farmers from Shuntian Mansion who were called to visit.

If Zhu Houcong wanted to listen, he had to really understand the actual situation of folk farming today.

In front of the emperor, after they became familiar with the atmosphere and found that the emperor was really listening carefully, these farming experts gradually let go of their restraints and dared to say something.

"...This ridge method is not always easy to use, it depends on what kind of field it is." Now they are arguing, "High fields should be planted in furrows to withstand drought! Low fields should be planted on ridges to prevent waterlogging!"

"Then the south is full of paddy fields, what should we do?"

"There is also dry land in the south!"

Zhao Tingsong listened, and suddenly said to the emperor: "I read the "Hanshu Shihuozhi". In the Han Dynasty, Zhao Guo, the captain of Susudu, once had the method of replacing the fields. The towns and ridges alternated. The next year, the towns and ridges replaced each other, and there was also Shangtian. Abandon the mu, go down to the field and abandon the bark. Sow the seeds in the pot, and the seedlings grow above the leaves, and the grass is slightly ridged, because the soil is cut to attach the roots of the seedlings. Wind and drought."

The old farmers were dizzy, and Zhu Houcong nodded: "It can be seen that this method has existed since ancient times, but it has never been taught to the world. Please speak simply so that these old farmers can understand."

Zhao Tingsong nodded in embarrassment.

This is not because when I saw the word Zhao when I was reading, I paid attention to it. Now I want to show it with my excellent memory, but the emperor beats me a little bit.

"...Your Majesty, although this method is good, it is very labor-intensive. You have to be lazy and work hard every year." An old farmer said again, "If you don't have iron plows at home, it will be even more difficult. As long as you can take good care of them For crops, if one acre of land is good, it can produce one or two more stones. We don’t know about paddy fields, so there may be other good ways.”

"It's okay, as Lao Pi said, there is also dry land in the south." Zhu Houcong nodded, "I will remember these two things, the iron plow and the livestock."

They speak of a method of plowing the field into rows and rotating crops each year between the rows and the furrows.It is good for maintaining soil fertility and preventing drought and waterlogging.The priest from the Agricultural College also said that the potato planted on such a ridge seems to be able to bear more fruit, probably because the soil is loose and airy.

But it is indeed more manpower-intensive to cultivate intensively in this way.

There is no shortage of hardworking farmers in Ming Dynasty, but judging from the real situation of the people, it is true that not every family can have good farm tools such as livestock and iron plows.

Everyone knows that these are good, and iron farm tools have been around for a long time, but just look at Foshan iron pots, and the price of a big pot is one or two five yuan, and you know that the real popularity of iron farm tools among the people is not too high. High.

Zhu Houcong has a heart for technology and industry, and he also has an account in his mind.

There are quite a few iron smelting factories run by the government of Ming Dynasty.According to the statistics in the memoirs and conference codes, as well as the statistics from six other departments, the current government-run iron smelting plant in Daming produces more than [-] million catties of iron a year.

In addition, there are private iron smelting represented by Foshan, Guangdong.

Daming's current iron tax is three cents of silver per ten thousand catties.Last year, the Tie Ke silver collected from Guangdong was just over 1 taels, more than [-] taels more than in previous years.

On the one hand, the new law makes Guangdong iron smelters afraid to evade more taxes. On the other hand, it can also prove that the output of private iron smelters in Guangdong province is at a level of more than 3000 million catties.

How much iron is needed in total if we want to really popularize iron farm tools across the country?
There are also military weapons and various other places where iron is used... There is never too much steel.

Livestock is one of the most important assets of a farmer's family. Didn't Comrade Zhu Yuanzhang do cattle herding in his early years?

"Let's talk about fat." Zhu Houcong asked a new topic.

"This old man knows!" Someone said enthusiastically, "In addition to manure, grass ash, river mud, and wall skin can all be composted! There is also retting. It has been passed down for hundreds of years, but few people can be so patient."

"Guano is the best! In my house, when the children go up the mountain to find firewood, I will definitely tell them to scrape the bird droppings and bring them back!"

Zhao Tingsong was dumbfounded listening to them talking about all kinds of dung in this majestic Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Forbidden City, and the soul of Jinshi was greatly shocked.

But the emperor listened carefully, and then said with emotion: "My Ming people have worked so hard!"

The reason why these old farmers can be recommended to come here is because of their hard work.

In addition to farming experience, the whole family is really aware of the collection and utilization of fertilizers.According to them, such situations are not uncommon in rural areas. Many families are already doing everything they can to collect various fertilizers.He even tried to defecate and pee in his own cesspit as much as possible, and if he was outside, he had to find a way to bring it back, and it would never be cheap for other people's fields!

"Raw manure is very dry and cannot be used directly. It needs to be retting!"

Zhao Tingsong felt as if he was going to be retting into a cesspit, but the emperor's attitude was too correct.

"When the Tartars are in the world, there is another method of steaming fertilizer, which is faster! The chaff, stalks, fallen leaves, and grass roots can all be burned together, and then the dung is mixed in and covered with soil. This is faster!"

Zhu Houcong nodded again and again, and said to the reporter comrades: "All good methods must be written down, and then published, and they must be explained in an easy-to-understand manner."

Zhao Tingsong felt that he was about to write a very interesting article.

"Then there is the Tiaolang family in that city." This person said a word that made Zhao Tingsong feel quite elegant, after all, this name came from Zhou Li.

Tiaolang is a "sanitation worker", but now he is actually digging up excrement.

The man said with emotion: "The city is rich, and ordinary people have no access to it, and they can't afford it. These good things are controlled by people."

Zhu Houcong asked for a while before he understood: In a densely populated city, the large amount of manure produced is now an industry.

There are already manure merchants, and they know how to make manure, which can then be supplied to wealthy households who help officials and gentry manage their fields.

Those people's fields are better, and they also have a stable supply of high-quality fertilizers, so the harvest is naturally better.

Ordinary people have to collect fertilizer with their whole family, but they don't have to worry about it.

"...these can't force them." Zhu Houcong could only say, "If you can find a way to make more fat besides these, that will be the root cause."

In fact, one of the important purposes for him to let these old farmers come is to see if there are any clues to make fertilizer.

Naturally, it is still at the stage of organic fertilizers, and Zhu Houcong has no idea about chemical fertilizers.

But today when they mentioned bird droppings, Zhu Houcong remembered Nauru, which became a "rich country" by selling bird droppings in his memory.

In addition, it was Jin Kela's magical advertisement, letting him know that the fertilizer was probably related to nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and synthetic ammonia.At the same time, there is also an indelible memory - urea.

It's just that he didn't know the principle behind it, and all these chemistry things were returned to the teacher.

Professional matters have to be left to professional people. Zhu Houcong turned his head and said to Huang Jin: "Look back and find out who is the biggest manure merchant in the capital. He does this as a career, and he must have some experience in fertilizer making. "

"...The servants lead the order."

Zhu Houcong was still in his professional thoughts, and he didn't think the order directly from the emperor was outrageous. He was still thinking: It seems that there is ammonia in the fart?
If you want to do chemistry, you can't do without the famous "chemists" in Chinese history-the Taoist priests who made alchemy. Zhu Houcong asked Huang Jin to find some Taoist priests who are quite well-known in alchemy.

Because of this "Agricultural Planting Technology Symposium", two types of people were inexplicably pinched together by the emperor, which triggered a wonderful reaction from the court and the people...

……

Who is the big dung merchant in the capital, there is no need to alarm many people - Jin Yiwei can handle it by himself.

The boss of Jinyiwei is the commander of the capital, and the Fusi of Nanbei Town is naturally important under him, but there are some military and political affairs at the Wei level, and the officials here are called Tangguan.

Among the officials of Jinyiwei Hall, there are three heads, namely the Admiral Dongsifang, the Admiral Xisifang, and the Admiral Jiejiefang.

Dongsifang arrests traitors inside and outside the capital, Xisifang arrests thieves inside and outside the capital, street houses...repair streets and dredge ditches inside and outside the capital.

This sounds outrageous, but the rank of the admiral's street house is not low. His identity is the commander of Jinyiwei, and he ranks third among the hall officials.

The reason for setting up a street house in Jinyiwei is also simple: there are too many dignitaries and dignitaries in the capital, and their construction of houses will naturally cause some damage to the city's infrastructure.It stands to reason that this matter is also under the control of the soldiers and horses of the five cities, but the officials of the Jinyiwei Hall with sufficient grades can easily suppress them.

Now that such a department has been established, the handling of the pollution of the residents of the capital will be entrusted to them.

Even including firefighting and other chores.

The East and West Divisions have their own seals, customs and defenses, and operate independently, and each can report to the emperor.What about street houses?
Jinyiwei middle and marginal pension department.

Now, the admiral's street room is an old man.

When Wen Tingwei heard Wang Zuo's order, his expression was very strange: "Your Majesty is looking for a dung merchant in the capital?"

"You know this matter best." Wang Zuo looked serious, "This is His Majesty's own decree, first find and find all the people before we talk about it!"

"...The humble post takes orders."

Wen Tingwei returned to his official office, and found the secretary in charge of specific affairs in the street house, and ordered: "Call all the people from the 130 Liudao Road inside and outside the city from east to west, north and south, and wait for your Majesty to deal with it."

He thought something had happened, so he used the word disposal.

Hearing the words "waiting for His Majesty's disposal", the secretary in the hall shuddered: "Admiral, there is a basket in our street house?"

"...I don't know, Mr. Wang is very solemn."

"I know! I'll send someone there right away!"

There are a total of 50 people in the Jinyiqi School in the street room quota. The secretary in the hall quickly found all the five small banner officials who led the team, and he was also very serious: "Your Majesty has a decree to catch the dung merchants in the capital. The admiral's order, first take care of them." 130 Bring all the people from Liushidao! I will give you half a day, and you must bring them all without missing a single one!"

"..."

The order is inexplicable, but everyone is a mature Jin Yiwei, just follow the order and do things.

Since the street house is in charge of the filth of the capital, they naturally know where to find whom.

Tangtang Jinyiwei, of course, does not do sanitation or clean up streets and ditches by themselves. They generally only put forward supervision pressure on urban management work from the perspective of the cleanliness and dignity of the city under the emperor's feet.

So is dirty work.

After many years of "competition", the dung workers in the capital, known as the "tiaolang clan" or "dumping feet workers", are now basically belonging to the twelve largest dung merchants.

Based on the accumulated experience in excavating excrement for many years, many streets and alleys in the capital are divided into 130 six excrement lanes according to the footsteps and "contracting relationship".

Each dung track belongs to a dung dealer, and the manure collectors hired by him are in charge.

The one with the most dung channels is the boss of the dung dealer in the capital.The name doesn't sound good, and Dao Zun is respected in the rivers and lakes.

Now, Song Hu, the Daoist of the capital, is at ease in his mansion in the capital.

Naturally, this house of his cannot exceed the limits, but now the house is burning with the best charcoal, the stove is warming the best wine, and the best concubine is in his arms.

Song Hu monopolizes 38 dung roads, how much money can he make every year?

He felt that he was more powerful than Luo Hui, the predecessor of the Tang Dynasty that his literati friends told him.It is said that Naluo will do this business for generations, and his family wealth is huge, and it was written in the book because of this.

There were many people in Chang'an back then, but there are also many people in Beijing now!
Besides, there are many more ways to dig out manure to make fertilizer than before.

For so many years, Song Hu has made his business better and better.

The most telling point is: now the fat of His Majesty's Huangzhuang is also paid by him!
The man is the royal fertilizer merchant!
Song Hu's name is very arrogant, but he is very rich and fat.

It's almost Chinese New Year, and now he is rubbing his concubine with great interest and asking, "Where did you buy the incense that was burned in the official room last night?"

"Oh my lord! If you like that taste, I will use that after I become a concubine!"

"Serious business! The master wants to buy some and give them away!"

It is natural for dung merchants to pay attention to gifts.It should not appear too extravagant, but also take into account your own identity.

In order to remove the smell when it is convenient, big families have the practice of burning some incense on the side.

The feces dealer sent this kind, which is not only in line with his status, but also expresses his love for the cleanliness and sanitation of the big customers' houses.

The price is not cheap either.

Being able to monopolize 38 dung roads in the capital, how could Song Hu not have some capable friends?

At least he considered a friend.

Now, a friend of his came to his house.

Very rude.

"Song Hu, follow me back to Jinyiwei."

"...Brother Qi, what happened? The little one has been working hard..."

From the ever-smiling Jinyiwei flag official's face in the past, Song Hu could see the awe-inspiring righteousness of cutting off the robe and breaking the righteousness.

As the Taoist priest of the dung way in the rivers and lakes, Song Hu is a fine person, he instinctively breaks out in a cold sweat.

The man monopolizes the business of 38 dung roads, even if he gets in the way of his colleagues, there is no need for Jin Yiwei to lead people, right?
It would be a big deal if these things got to the county government!
"Your Majesty's order, you who are sensible, don't talk too much, it's still decent to walk with me now!"

Song Hu's face turned pale.

what did you say?
Do you still need His Majesty's order to catch me?
Last year, the capital was indeed very nervous because of treason.

But I just dig out some dung, could it be reversed?

Daozun was panicked, but the priests were pleasantly surprised.

Zhu Houcong officially had an intersection with Taoist priests, and he took the initiative to search for them.

You don't need to go through anyone to find a dung dealer, but you need to rely on the power of the government to find a famous way of alchemy.

As soon as the news got out, private discussions began.

At the time when the Prime Minister's Worship Ceremony is about to be held, many people can't help but feel strange: Could it be that after His Majesty suppressed the rebellion and established a prime minister, is he going to start seeking longevity at a young age?

Zuo Zheng, who had just been placed under the Ministry of Rites, was very excited.

Although the Daolu Department was also under the management of the Ministry of Rites in name, it had officials but no yamen.

Now, although the official name has not been changed, there is actually a government office in the Ministry of Rites, and monks and Taoists are combined into one division, and the chief division is the fourth rank. Five products!

The yamen hall is still hot, thinking about His Majesty's intention of reforming the system, thinking about where to make meritorious deeds, and His Majesty's will is here!
"Invite Youzheng, Yanfa, Zhiling, Xuanyi and other officials, Your Majesty has a will!"

This time, we must complete the first mission that His Majesty has given to Daolu Division.

If His Majesty wants masters of alchemy, then there must be no less of masters of alchemy in Ming Dynasty!
Faced with the news that came out, before the court meeting on the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, some officials had the idea of ​​being loyal to the emperor and serving the country.

The new law has not yet been implemented, and the Ming Dynasty has not yet become rich, so why does Your Majesty want to cultivate mysteries?

(End of this chapter)